Known air filter systems have a raw air duct, a filter housing with an air filter element and a filtered air duct to an internal combustion engine. The raw air duct and the filtered air duct are connected to a corresponding raw air inlet or a filtered air outlet of the filter housing. For this the air filter system with filter housing and raw air duct are mounted as a structural unit partly in the engine compartment and partly in an air intake area separate from the engine compartment.
Known from the U.S. publication no. 2007/0095324 A1 is an air filter system 3 with raw air duct 4 shown in FIG. 6, which is suspended as an assembly unit on a frame of the vehicle. The raw air duct 4 has a fastening eye 27 in the area of a free end 28 with an intake opening 29. The intake opening 29 is disposed in an air intake region 10, from which raw air is sucked into the raw air duct 4 in the direction of arrow A. With another end 30, which extends into an engine compartment 9, the raw air duct 4 fits in a raw air inlet 31 of an air filter housing 5. In this view, no filtered air supply to the internal combustion engine of the vehicle is disposed at the filter housing 5, so that only a filtered air outlet 32 can be seen, from which the filtered air exits in the direction of arrow B towards the internal combustion engine.
Such an air filter system 3 has the disadvantage that during final assembly, during maintenance, during repairs, or during replacement work, the unit comprised of raw air duct 4 and filter housing 5 must be aligned as a unit and installed and fixed around a plurality of components of the engine compartment 9. In this case, the air filter system 3 must be aligned to the individual fastening eyes 27 and fastening points 33, 34 of the raw air duct 4 or the air filter housing 5 in a time-consuming manner and held in position until a secure fixing is possible. The more complex and the larger the air filter system 3 is, the more time-consuming is the simultaneous mounting of an air filter system 3 inside the engine compartment 9 and outside the engine compartment 9 in the air intake region 10. In this diagram the transition zone 11 between engine compartment 9 and air intake region 10 is characterized by a dot-dash line.
In view of the foregoing, it is at least one object to provide an air filter system for a vehicle and a method for mounting the same, which allows a complex structure and nevertheless permits time-saving mounting. It should be possible to mount, maintain, repair, and/or exchange the air filter system easily with few maneuvers or automatically with production robots. In addition, other objects, desirable features, and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.